News Tiana's Bayou Adventure - latest details and construction progress

[MagicHappens1971]

How much did this project cost? I think we know the answer. Money well spent? I would argue no.

150M-200M? Disney blew that like 8 times last year on box office flops. This attraction was due for a heavy refurb anyway, and as GMR-MMRR and Malestrom-FEA showed us, if Disney is spending the money to redo an attraction, it's going to be IP based. Do I love TBA? I'm holding out full judgement until I ride it, but I'm overall happy with it.

 

[basas]

150M-200M? Disney blew that like 8 times last year on box office flops. This attraction was due for a heavy refurb anyway, and as GMR-MMRR and Malestrom-FEA showed us, if Disney is spending the money to redo an attraction, it's going to be IP based. Do I love TBA? I'm holding out full judgement until I ride it, but I'm overall happy with it.

Are you arguing that $150-$200 million dollars is not a lot of money? Money that could have gone to additions? It’s one thing to spend money like that redoing rides that are not popular. Splash Mountain was not in that category.

Well at least you admit all the box office flops.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

Well at least you admit all the box office flops.

I'm not a staunch Disney supporter. But there are some basic facts here. Very few people outside of what sometimes seems like an echo chamber (this forum) cares/knows about SotS. A lot of people know/care about Tiana and she enforces the Disney Princess branding. The different outfits she wears, and the cute little critters will sell far more merch than Splash ever did.

 

[basas]

I'm not a staunch Disney supporter. But there are some basic facts here. Very few people outside of what sometimes seems like an echo chamber (this forum) cares/knows about SotS. A lot of people know/care about Tiana and she enforces the Disney Princess branding. The different outfits she wears, and the cute little critters will sell far more merch than Splash ever did.

Very few people may have known or cared much about SOTS…yet the ride was still popular. Seems to prove my point.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

Here's a bit of information that might tickle your brain:
Tony Baxter said recently on a podcast that the NAACP enjoyed the idea of the ride, because it would expose the American public to niche characters from African Folklore. So I completely disagree with you that it was justified. This problem was solved in 1989, and it was brought back up because a small group of ignorant and loud social media folk on my side of the aisle do absolutely ZERO research into their beliefs.

I feel like I've gone in circles about this, but haven't we confirmed that there were credible rumors that Disney started planning to replace Splash with Tiana in 2019? Way before the events that people claim caused Disney to pull the trigger on this retheme.

 

[UNCgolf]

Why DOES that happen? Are there raptors circling us?

I think Louis is in there behind the plants.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

Why DOES that happen? Are there raptors circling us?

It's a little hard to see in the light, but Louis is back there with his head under a wheelbarrow looking for critters.

Presumably his movements are meant to shake the okra, though truthfully I'm not sure the Louis figure actually has any movement of its own . . . it's odd.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

Very few people may have known or cared much about SOTS…yet the ride was still popular. Seems to prove my point.

I'm confused. What was your point? Yes. The ride was popular. It is ~10 minute flume attraction in a theme park that averages feels like temperatures of 95+ in the summer. Of course it was popular.

 

[dreamfinding]

It's a little hard to see in the light, but Louis is back there with his head under a wheelbarrow looking for critters.

Presumably his movements are meant to shake the okra, though truthfully I'm not sure the Louis figure actually has any movement of its own . . . it's odd.

His figure is incredibly hard to see at night.

 

[basas]

I'm confused. What was your point? Yes. The ride was popular. It is ~10 minute flume attraction in a theme park that averages feels like temperatures of 95+ in the summer. Of course it was popular.

My point was that it was not money well spent.

And I think the ride just *might* have been popular for other reasons, too…

 

[Casper Gutman]

Man, so much Louis, the blandest part of the film. In a charming, original movie, the one bit that felt like he was a stock character designed by committee to move merch... so it makes sense he has a starring role here.

 

[flynnibus]

Just remember... someone saw a storyboard of this ride.. or something even worse... and said YES! That's what we should build!

This is such a horrible showing.. it just solidifies the belief that Splash was marked for execution and they said replace it by X before really even knowing what they were going to get or having any power to say no.

Or... someone looked at Navi River.. and said "see, as long as you put in a fancy AA.. the fact the rest of the ride seems pointless doesn't matter!'.. and this team said "hold my beer"

Dead spots... whatever, Splash had them too. They were always going to struggle to fill out the entire Splash path.. but like the Malestrom redo.. it seems they didn't even want to try with low tech scenes to try to fill those spaces and just went with 'lighting'. For all the hate on Frozen replacing Malestrom (which really wasn't a good ride)... this job makes you feel like they only learned to spend more and not focus on the need to have a good plot or catchy song/purpose people can get into.

WTH was all this talk about food, her own venue, etc... the whole thing doesn't seem to build off the success of the movie plot AT ALL.. and the whole DCA Bountiful Farms scenes in the beginning seem completely pointless, or even a distraction.

Unless you adore Tiana like a swifty what memorable character performances do you get from this ride? You like a fat alligator... or a stereotyped Mama character.. ? The general public doesn't get swooned by how high tech your AAs are.. they want to fall in love with a character+performance. This ride feels like they wanted to prove people wrong by saying "we'll use a ton of the greatest AAs and we'll show them!!!' - but fired all their creative writers to pay for the AAs or something.

Really odd set designs too... like the entrance to the second lift hill... the sign just forces you to recognize all the lack of symetry in the set due to the safety features on the wall.. for a completely pointless sign. It's written up like an invitation... but who puts invitations on horizontal banners like that? The notions just clash outright... for a scene that seems to detract more than anything.

For this story, Splash's total ride time is really an albatross they clearly never had a good answer for... to see this plot as the best Disney could do before replacing an icon is tragic.

If they wanted a 'getting the band together...' story... They should have studied the Blues Brothers!

 

[MagicHappens1971]

Do you really think this story board was put in front of someone and they said... Wow yes, sign me up!!

I don't love the way the story turned out, but obviously it was put in front of a WDI exec, and probably at least Josh D'Amaro, and clearly they said yes, since at least 150M has been spent and the attraction opens in 25 days.

 

[flynnibus]

I'm confused. What was your point? Yes. The ride was popular. It is ~10 minute flume attraction in a theme park that averages feels like temperatures of 95+ in the summer. Of course it was popular.

The merchandise wasn't pushing taglines like "best way to cool down" etc... And flume rides are a dime a dozen in any amusement park. Splash was a lot more than just dumb people looking to get wet.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

The merchandise wasn't pushing taglines like "best way to cool down" etc... And flume rides are a dime a dozen in any amusement park. Splash was a lot more than just dumb people looking to get wet.

As a Disney fan(?) you may believe that, but most guests rode Splash to cool down. While I appreciated the scenery and effort into the story, at it's core it was a water ride. Also outside of the story issues, I think visually (inside & out) the attraction is an upgrade to Splash.

 

[flynnibus]

I don't love the way the story turned out, but obviously it was put in front of a WDI exec, and probably at least Josh D'Amaro, and clearly they said yes, since at least 150M has been spent and the attraction opens in 25 days.

You're intentionally skipping the point. You were talking about wanting to use Tiana for a replacement before controversy. Don't you think such a desire would include how to make that work?

Do you think they had a great idea and somehow threw it out for this? Or is this the best they had?

 

[MagicHappens1971]

You're intentionally skipping the point. You were talking about wanting to use Tiana for a replacement before controversy. Don't you think such a desire would include how to make that work?

I'm not intentionally skipping the point.

Do you think they had a great idea and somehow threw it out for this? Or is this the best they had?

No. It was always going to be an IP based retheme, and outside of maybe Moana, this was the best bet. Do I think the story could've been better executed? Yes.

 

[basas]

The merchandise wasn't pushing taglines like "best way to cool down" etc... And flume rides are a dime a dozen in any amusement park. Splash was a lot more than just dumb people looking to get wet.

One might also opine that’s it’s pretty hard for Splash merchandise to “fly off the shelves” when they wouldn’t stock Splash merchandise…

Oh…and on my last visit to Disney I saw plenty of Tiana merchandise and this was before the ride was open…there are a lot of shops at Disney!

 

[flynnibus]

As a Disney fan(?) you may believe that, but most guests rode Splash to cool down.

No, I believe that after watching GENERATIONS of kids fall in love with it.. and actually communicating with them why. None of them ever said they went on it for heat relief. The splashes and drop fun? Of course... was a splash down unique that drew them in? Absolutely not. Never did they say "man, I wish they would just cut out all that other stuff and just have those fun drops!"

No one ever walked around repeating the screams of the drop... but they seemed to learn a song from a movie they never got to see or understood and would repeat those chorus lines...

 

[flynnibus]

I'm not intentionally skipping the point.

No. It was always going to be an IP based retheme, and outside of maybe Moana, this was the best bet. Do I think the story could've been better executed? Yes.

So you believe they just didn't care at all, and just went with it based on liking the character selection and that's it?

Or do you believe they actually thought the concept was good?